US Ambassador: Tape of 'Obama-Netanyahu Conversation' Fabricated

US, Israeli PM rush to reject the authenticity of a recording claimed to be of Obama trying to force an unfavorable ceasefire on Israel.

By Ari Soffer

First Publish: 7/29/2014, 10:35 PM

Dan Shapiro (file)

Flash90

The United States' Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, has emphatically rejected the authenticity of an audio tape released Tuesday night, said to be a leaked recording of a conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, in which the US President reportedly sought to aggressively push an unfavorable ceasefire on Israel.

"Have seen reports of an alleged Obama-Netanyahu transcript; neither reports nor alleged transcript bear any resemblance to reality," Ambassador Shapiro posted on his official Twitter account.

"Shocking and disappointing someone would sink to misrepresenting a private convo between POTUS and PM in fabrications to Israeli press," he added in another.

The president's own National Security Council also took to Twitter to dismiss the tape with a near-identical post:

In the last few minutes, the Israeli Prime Minister's official account has posted, verbatim, the exact same tweet, denying the conversation ever took place:

A reporter for Israel's Channel One claimed a "senior US official" leaked the 35-minute recording to him, which he said took place during a conversation between the two on Sunday.